Ephesians 4:1-6
4:3. Saint Chrysostom: "What is the 'unity of the Spirit'? In the human body there is a spirit which holds all together, though in different members. So is it also here:; for to this reason was the Spirit given, that He might unite those who are separated by race and by different manners; for old and young, poor and wealthy, child and adolescent, woman and man, and every soul in a manner become one, and more entirely so than if there were one body. For this spiritual relation is far greater than the other actual one, and the perfectness of the union is entire; because the conjunction of the soul is more perfect, inasmuch as it is both simple and uniform. And how then is this unity preserved? 'In the bond of peace'. It is not possible for this to be in enmity and separation."
4:4a Saint Chrysostom: ""Now what is 'one body'? The faithful throughout the inhabited world, both which are, and which have been, and which shall be." [Hom. 10, P.G. 62:75 (col. 75.]
4:4b. Blessed Theophylact: "And one spirit'. The meaning may be that from the one body they are one spirit; or that there is to be one body, but not one spirit, as when anyone may be a friend of heretics, not accommodating their dogmas; or that receiving one Spirit of the faith, in the sense of accounting for oneness of mind; or spirit in the sense of sharing in eagerness or zealously promoting, that is, the concord." [P.G. 124:394B (col. 1082).]
Saint Chrysostom: "Thus any show that from the one body there will be one spirit; or that it is possible that there may be indeed one body and yet not one spirit, as, for instance, if any member of it should be a friend if heretics; or else he is shaming them into unanimity, saying, as it were, ' You who had received one Spirit and were made to drink at one fountain, ought not to be divided in mind'; or else by spirit here he means their readiness." [Hom. 11, P.G. 62:80 (col. 79).]
4:5. Saint Cyprian: "For certain no one can be baptized abroad outside the Church, since there is one Baptism appointed in the holy Church." [EpistleLXIX, to Januarius and Other Numidian Bishops." * 1, In Ante-Nicene, V:375.] "Furthermore, one is not born by the imposition of hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit, but in baptism, that so being already born, he may receive the Holy Spirit, even as it happened to the first Adam. For first God formed him, and then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. For the Spirit can not be received unless he who receives should first have an existence. But as the birth of Christians is Baptism, while the generation and sanctification of Baptism are with the Spouse of Christ alone, who is able to spiritually conceive and bear sons to God, where and of whom and to whom is he born, who is not a son of the Church, so that he should have God as his Father, before he has had the Church for his Mother?...There is no baptism where the Holy Spirit is not, because there cannot be Baptism without the Spirit." [Epistle LXXIII, to Pompey." ** 5, 7, in Ante-Nicene, V:388.] "But if according to a perverted Faith, one could be Baptized outside and obtain remission of sins, according to the same faith, he could also attain the Holy Spirit; and there is no need that hands should be laid on him when he comes, that he might obtain the Holy Spirit and be sealed. Either he could obtain both piveliges without by his faith, or he who has been outside has received neither." ["Epistle LXXIII, to Jubaianus," * 6, in Ante-Nicene, V:381.]
Saint Athnasios: "There are many heresies which use the words only, but not in a right sense...nor with sound faith, and in consequence, the water which they administer is unprofitable, as deficient in piety, so that he who is sprinkled by them is rather polluted by the irreligious than redeemed." [Against the Arians, Second Discourse, , Ch. XVIII(43), in Nicene, 2nd Ser. IV:371.]
Saint Ambrose: "The baptism of unbelievers does not heal, it does not cleanse, but pollutes." [The Mysteries, Ch. 4(23), in FC, 44:13.]
4:5, 6. Saint Chrysostom: "There is 'one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism', Behold, the hope of your calling. 'One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in you all.'. For can it be that thou are called by the name of a greater God, and another of a lesser God? For can it be that thou wast saved by faith, and another wast saved by works? Can it be that thou didst find remission through Baptism and another did not? 'There is one God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all, and in you all.'. 'Who is over all', that is, the Lord and above all; and 'through all' that is, providentially caring for all; and 'in you all,' that is , Who dwelleth in you all." [Hom. 11, P.G. 62:81 (col.80); cf. Bl. Theophylact, P.G. 124:394B-D (col. 1082).]
Luke 10:25-37
10:27a. Saint Basil: "The love of God is not something we learn from another; nor has antyyone taught us how to love the sunshine, or defend life, or love our parents. Indeed learning how to lvoe God does not come to us from outside. In the very commencement of the life of man, there is placed within us a certain seminal conception, having from itself, the beginings of a natural propensity towards this love...And so, receiving the command to love God, at once, from the first instant of our being, we posess the power to love...Now whatsoever is done freely of our own nature proceeds from our nature, provided evil has not perverted our judgement." [The First Commandment, II, 1, 2; in Toal, IV, 35-37; P.G. 31 (col. 905).]
10:27b. Saint Saint Basil: "He who loves his neighbor, fulfils the love he owes ot God; for God accepts this love as an act of love offered to Himself. 'For I hungered and ye gave me to eat, I thirsted and ye gave me to drink...[Mt. 25:35]' ; and then He goes on to add, 'insofar as ye did it to one of the least of these My bretheren, ye did it to Me [Mt. 25:40]. ' " [Ib., III, 1, in Toal, IV:39.]
10:30a Saint Ambrose: "Profound and wonderful mysteries are found here if scrutinized. Jericho is an image of this world, to which Adam, cast out from Paradise, namely, that heavenly Jerusalem, descended by the mishap of his transgression." [Ib., Bk. VII, § 73; cf. P.L. 15, Lib. VIII, Incip. par 73 (col. 1718).]
Saint Bede: "Well does Jericho, which is interperted as the 'moon,' stand for this ever-changing life, since like the moon it is ever uncertain in its wabderings and its changes." [Blessed Are the Eyes that See," in Toal, IV:68; Exposition on the Gospel of Luke, P.L. 92, Lib. III, Cap. X (col. 467).]
10:30b. Saint Ambrose: "Who are those theives, if not the angels of night and darkness, who sometimes transform themselves into angels of light, but cannot persevere? They first stel the garments of of spiritual grace which we have received and are thus wont to inflict wounds; but if we persevere inviolate the garment which we have donned, we can not feel the robbers' blows." [Ib.]
Saint Bede: "Here for robbers we understand the devil and his angels...Now we read that they stripped him. They deprived him of the garment of immortality and innocence. For this is the first robe with which, according to another parable, the prodigal son [Lk. 15:22], returning through repentance, was adorned; and having lost it, our first parents saw themselves as naked, and put on the skin of garments of a nature now mortal. They wound him. The wounds are sins, by means of which they implanted in his weaked body a seedbed, if I may say so, of growing death, profaning the integrity of human nature. They went away, but not as ceasing from their assaults, but to conceal their attacks by craft. They left him half-dead; for thought they were able to strip him of the blessedness of immortal life, they were not able to deprive himn of the power of reason. For on that part of him in which he can taste and know God, man is alive. But in the part that has grown weak from sin and faints from wretchedness, he is dead, defiled by a mortal wound." [Ib.]
10:31, 32. Saint Bede: "The prist and the Levite, who seeing the wounded man, passed by, signify the priesthood and ministry of the Old Testament, when the wounds...could only be pointed out by the dregrees of the law, but could not be cured by them; 'for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins [Heb. 10:4]. ' " [Ib.]
10:33. Saint Ambrose: "The whole human race would have fallen if that Samaritan on His journey, had not tended its grevious injuries...Indeed 'guard' is signified by the name 'Samaritan.' Who is the Guard if not He? Thus, here the Samaritan is going down. 'Christ is the One Who cometh down out of the heavens [cf. Jn. 6:33], 'and 'noone hath gone up into the heavens , except the One Who came down out of the heavens, the Son of Man, Who is in the heavens [Jn. 3:13], ' " [Ib., Bk. VII, § 74.]
Saint Bede: "The Samaritan whose name means 'Defender,' stabds for the Lord. " [Ib.}
10:34a. Saint Ambrose: "He sees him half-dead whom noone could cure...That Physician has many remedies with which He is wont to cure. His speech is a remedy. One of His saying binds up wounds, another forments with oil, another pours in wine; He binds wounds with a stricter precept, He forments with the remission of sins, He stings wit hthe rebuke of judgement as if with wine." [Ib., Bk. VII, § 75.]
Saint Bede: "He binds up the sins, which H efinds in men, by rebuking them. He inspired wit hthe fear of punishment those who sin, and with hope those who repent. He binds up our wounds when He commands us, 'Repent ye.' He pours in oil, when he adds, 'For the kingom of tyhe heavens hath drawn near [Mt. 4:170. ' He pours in wine also, when he says, 'Every tree which produceth not good fruit is being cut out and cast into the fire [Mt. 3:10]. ' " [Ib., Toal, IV:69.]
10:34b. Saint Ambrose: "The Shepherd laid the weary sheep on his shoulders...He sets us on His own beast...so that through the taking on of flesh, He may abolish the weakness of our flesh. Then He lead us who used ot be beats to the stable." [Ib., § 76.]
Saint Bede: "The 'beast' is His own flesh, in which he deigned to come to us. On it He placed wounded man, because He 'Himself carried up our sins in His body on a tree [1 Pe. 2:24; cf. Is. 53:4], ' and laid upon His shoulder the lost sheep [Lk. 15:5]. " [Ib.]
10:35. Saint Ambrose: "This samaritan was not at liberty to remain long on earth. He must return thither whence He had descended...And what are the two denarii, unless perhaps the two Testaments, which contain manifest within them the image of the eternal King, at the price of whose wounds we are healed? We are redeemed by precious blood, that we may avoid the soresof final death. " [Ib.., Saint Bede: "Saint Bede: " 78-80].
Saint Bede: "The inn is the present Church where travelers, returnung to thir everlasting home, are refreshed on their journey. And well does he bring to the inn the man He placed upon His own beast; for noone, unless he who is baptized, unless he is united wit hthe body of Christ shall enter the Church...[Ib.]
